


Don't you see me now?

by yellouve



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Smut, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Smut, bottom!Louis, i don't know what to tag, the zouis is also pretty brief, tomlinshaw (very brief), zouis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-30 09:37:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8528122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellouve/pseuds/yellouve
Summary: “So, you met the new guy, talked to him so much throughout the day that you developed, what I can only call, an infatuation with him, and then found out he’s engaged? Wow, shit day, Haz?” Gemma says with a bit of sympathy in her eyes. Not much though, she has a 7 month old baby at home and a husband that doesn’t seem to know how to soothe a crying baby at 4am.“You could say that” Harry mutters, only just picking up the menu and blankly looking at it before ordering his usual dish.Once the waiter brings their food over Gemma asks one more question, before dropping the subject.“What’s his name then, Haz?”“Louis, Louis Tomlinson.” Harry sighs.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first proper thing i've written in a long time so I'm aware this isn't great. This is very loosely based on The Office U.S.  
> Feedback is very much appreciated :)
> 
> Title from fallingforyou by The 1975

When Harry first saw him it was a Wednesday.

 

He remembers because it was his weekly dinner out with his sister, Gemma. Since she got married and had her first kid it got harder to keep in touch as much as they’d like to, but they make sure to keep up to date with each other’s lives by meeting each Wednesday, at the same restaurant, at the same time.

 

Today was different, as soon Gemma saw Harry she could tell something happened earlier on.  
Before even saying ‘hello’ to one another Harry had slumped down in a chair at their regular table and sighed, the longest sigh Gemma had heard from Harry in his 23 years of life, so far. She took a sip of the water she ordered before her brother arrived and waited for him to speak up about whatever it was that was bothering him.  
“There’s a new guy at work…” Harry started, keeping his eyes looking down at his feet beneath the table.  
“Right? Is he a problem? Do you not get along?” Gemma replied, not quite understanding her younger brother’s issue.  
“No, no. Nothing like that. Quite the opposite, really.”  
“The opposite? What, so you get along? What’s your issue then? I haven’t seen you this glum since -”  
“He’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen, Gems. He’s pretty and small and curvy, and he has these black ink tattoos that you can slightly see through his shirt. And he’s so funny, the funniest person I’ve met I think, and I’ve known him less than 24 hours!” Harry interrupts, throwing his head into his hands and sighing louder than he did when he first came in.  
“Ah” is all Gemma replies to her rambling her brother.  
“What do you mean, ‘ah’?” Harry replies to his sister, looking up from his hands with a scowl on his face.  
“You have a crush on him. You have a crush on the new guy. This is why you’re so down? I’m not getting the issue? Is there some rule about not dating colleagues at your office, which I’m pretty sure there isn’t. Not the most professional place you work at, Haz”  
“Calling it a crush makes me sound 14, Gem.” Harry mumbles. “And I can date a co-worker if I want, but usually it has to be reciprocated. I can’t date someone without them wanting to date me.” He continues while playing with a loose thread at the bottom of his sleeve.  
“Oh. He already doesn’t like you? Must have made a pretty big dick of yourself there, Harry. What d’ya do?”  
“I did nothing! He actually thinks i’m charming, if you must know. But there is a problem, there is no chance of use even going on one date, never mind actually ever being a ‘thing’. He’s engaged, to a total douche, may I add.”  
“So, you met the new guy, talked to him so much throughout the day that you developed, what I can only call, an infatuation with him, and then found out he’s engaged? Wow, shit day, Haz?” Gemma says with a bit of sympathy in her eyes. Not much though, she has a 7 month old baby at home and a husband that doesn’t seem to know how to soothe a crying baby at 4am.  
“You could say that” Harry mutters, only just picking up the menu and blankly looking at it before ordering his usual dish.  
Once the waiter brings their food over Gemma asks one more question, before dropping the subject.  
“What’s his name then, Haz?”  
“Louis, Louis Tomlinson.” Harry sighs. 

 

 

The next 3 months go similar. Each week Harry would have a new story for his sister about something funny or cute Louis did at work. Gemma really feels sorry for her brother, she can him grow more and more fond of this boy and from what she’s heard, he’s very happily engaged and there’s no sign of that changing anytime soon. 

 

Until Harry cancels their dinner, one Wednesday. It’s been 4 months now since Louis started working with Harry, and Gemma has heard nothing but “Louis did this-” or “Louis said this-” , week in, week out.  
Before she’s about to head out of the door to meet her brother she gets a text from Harry reading: **Gems! Sorry can’t make it tonight. Louis needs help with something, I’ll call you later. H x**  
It’s safe to say she’s more than surprised hearing, or reading, that Harry has to blow off their dinner to help Louis. However there is no way she’s gonna hold it against him, to her knowledge this will be the first time Harry will have spent time with Louis outside of working hours. And she’s sure as hell she’ll get a detailed description of the night when Harry calls later.

 

She gets a call from Harry at around 10:30pm. A lot later than she’s expecting really. 

 

“Harry? Have you just got back? I thought you’d have been back earlier.” Gemma says as soon as she answers the call.  
“Hi, um. This is Louis? I’m a friend of Harry’s. He told me to call you and let you know he’s sorry for not calling earlier but he got held up.” A shaky voice replies from the other end of the phone, making everything he said sound like a question.

 

As soon as Gemma hears the name Louis she gasps, she tries to cover it up but she’s certain Louis heard it.

 

“Louis? Oh I think Harry’s mentioned you once or twice. You work together, right?” Gemma replies to the nervous boy, trying to make it seem like she’s not heard nothing but stories about Louis from her fond brother for the past 17 weeks.  
“Uh, yeah, we work together. If you want to talk to him I’m sure he’ll be out in a sec. He went to grab a change of clothes for us both. It’s raining pretty bad and he got locked out of his car so we had to walk here from the office.”

 

“No,No! There’s no need to keep me on the line, love. Just tell Harry to call me tomorrow night. Nice finally talking to you, Louis!” The ‘finally’ slipped out of her mouth and as soon as she realises she slaps her hand over her mouth, as though it’d take back the word.  
“Finally? What do you mean, Finally?” Louis questions, confused by Gemma’s words. 

 

Gemma doesn’t even reply she immediately hangs up not wanting to drop her brother in it anymore than she already has. Not wanting to get a call back, she turns her phone off and tries to go to sleep before she’ll be woken up by a crying 11 month old baby. 

 

_When Harry got out of work he saw Louis, stood by himself, with a cigarette between his pointer and index finger, his thumb lightly tapping to flick off the ash._  
_Immediately Harry feels uneasy, feels as though something is wrong with the boy he has become so obsessed with over these past few months._  
_He strides over slowly but his unnecessarily long limbs making him get there quicker than he would’ve liked._  
_“Louis?” Harry says quietly, not trying to break the peaceful bubble surrounding the breathtaking boy in front of him._  
_“Oh. Hi Harry.” _Louis says, from looking up at Harry from underneath the umbrella he’s trying to hold up with one hand. Harry had noticed before that whenever it’s raining Louis has his umbrella up, even if it’s just a little drizzle. He thinks it’s probably because of his low tolerance of cold weather, another thing he’s picked up about the boy. But not only does he have to have his umbrella up through the rain no matter how timid it’s falling, he has to use both hands to be able to steadily hold it up right. And if that’s not the cutest Harry’s ever seen he doesn't know what is. ____  
_“Are you ok? Where’s Nick? You two normally go back to your place together, don't you?” Harry asks trying to make it sound more relaxed than pressing. Like he isn’t already fuming at Nick for possibly leaving his fiance out in the freezing rain._  
_“Um, well Nick and I- I mean, Nick, really. He um. Well, I found him kissing a guy in the storage room downstairs. I just sent him back home by himself. I’ve expected him to do something like this for a while, I’ve seen him making eyes at this guy downstairs for a while now, and well, I know what Nick’s like. He gets bored.” Louis says, shrugging it off like it’s nothing. Like he hadn’t caught his fiance making out with some other guy at the place they BOTH work._  
_It’s safe to say Harry is now livid. He doesn’t get it. Cheating is something he loathes anyway, but on Louis? To feel like Louis isn’t enough for you, out of all people? He almost pity’s Nick for not seeing how special and wonderful Louis is._  
_“Louis, I am so sorry. What the fuck? What a dick! Are you okay? Wait, sorry dumb question. If Nick is going back to your place, where are you staying? You can come back to mine, it’s no issue!” Harry blurts out, all of his words more or less falling into one towards the end of his sentence. He’s not quite sure offering his place to Louis, given his overwhelming fixation with the boy._  
_“I was gonna, um, I don’t know really. I was probably gonna go to a hotel and then head up to my mum’s in a few days. I wouldn’t want to put you out, Harry.”_  
_“You wouldn’t!” Harry replies, a little too eagerly and a little too loud, making Louis take a step back and look at him with wide eyes, confused by his sudden volume. “I mean, you wouldn’t be putting me out, I have a double bed and a pull out sofa, i’m not suggesting we sleep in the same bed, obviously, I wouldn’t want you to feel uncomfortable. _I’d take the couch and you’d have the bed. You can stay as long as you like, honestly, no worries at all!”__  
_“Really? You wouldn’t mind me staying with you for a while? I really wouldn’t want you to feel awkward by my being there? I can really just get a hotel room for a bit?” Louis replies, with a fondness in his eyes that Harry tries to ignore._  
_“No, don’t be silly! I don’t live too far. We can just walk around to the car park and drive to mine now. I can give you something to sleep in tonight and we can wash and dry your clothes from today and tomorrow we’ll take our break at the same time and we’ll go get you whatever you need from your place.” Harry says while trying to fish his keys out of his work bag._  
_“Yeah, I mean - that sounds great, Harry. Thank you so much, you don’t know how much this means to me. I’m really - “_  
_“Fuck.” Harry interrupts, cutting Louis off from whatever he was about to say. “Sorry, just um, my keys, can’t seem to find ‘em. Think i’ve left them in one of my desk drawers. Is it cool if we walk back? It’s not too far, I promise.” Harry says, looking really quite annoyed with himself for being so dumb on the one day he needs to try and at least somewhat impress this beautiful boy that’s going to be staying with him for God knows how long._  
_“Of course, that’s fine. We can walk back now, before the rain gets any worse.” Louis utters, taking one last drag of his cigarette before stomping it out with his Vans clad feet. Harry really doesn’t know how he manages to wear those shoes to work everyday without anyone batting an eyelid. Harry quickly pulls his phone out and texts Gemma telling her that he’s not going to be able to meet her this evening, dropping Louis’ name in the text to make sure she knows he has a good reason._  
_The majority of their walk back to Harry’s flat goes by in a comfortable silence. They walk close together to try and fit the both of them under Louis’ tiny hands, in between the two of them. Harry can feel his heart beat faster each time he feels Louis look at him out of the corner of his eyes. He doesn’t really know what to say to the boy next to him, without blurting out about how mad he is at the man that caused them to be in this situation. Sure, Harry has no problem with Louis staying with him. None at all, he’s quite keen on the idea, but Harry has been limited to only seeing Louis in work hours and now, well now he’s going to be going home with Louis, and waking up to Louis and he doesn’t even know how long for. He’s not sure if he’ll be able to refrain himself from telling him about how beautiful he is or accidentally blurting out just how obsessed he is with him. Or worse, getting deeper into this entire situation, possibly falling in love with the boy._  
_“Your hair is really curly.” Louis points out, snapping Harry out of his thoughts._  
_“Uh, yeah? Don’t you like it?” Harry voices while scratching under his jaw and looking down. Trying to not look at the boy next to him._  
_“No, no. That’s not what I meant, sorry. Um I should’ve worded it differently. I just mean, it looks curlier than usual, probably the rain right?” Harry nods in response to the question, knowing Louis was still looking up at him. “I actually really like your hair, it’s pretty.” He mumbles out. As soon as the word pretty fall from Louis lips, Harry finds himself blushing furiously, still keeping his eyes glued to the ground. “I shouldn’t have said that should I? I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just meant your hair is nice. I didn’t want you to think I didn’t like it. That wasn’t my intention, sorry.”_  
_“Louis, why are you apologizing for complimenting me? You really don’t need to say sorry for saying you like my hair. I’m glad you like it.”_  
_“I don’t know, sorry” the smaller boy mutters, seeming to think he’d bothered the larger boy._  
_“Stop apologizing.”  
_They fall back into silence after that, slightly less comfortable than before. Louis thinking he’s annoyed Harry and Harry thinking he was too short with Louis.__

_When they reach Harry’s apartment Harry lets Louis in first, telling him to make himself at home and that’ll he be there in a minute once he’s locked the door and hung their wet coats up. When he gets to the living are of his apartment he finds Louis stood, completely still, like his feet were glued to that one spot in the middle of the room. His eyes scanning around._  
_“You’re soaking, I’ll go get you a change of clothes. They’ll probably be too big, but I’m sure they’ll be better than your wet clothes. Here, will you call my sister, her number is under ‘Gemma’, just let her know i’m home and I’ll call her tomorrow.”_  
_“Hey, I’m not that small, I’m sure your clothes won’t be that big.” Louis says with a tiny pout, taking the phone from Harry and folding his arms, like a child about to throw a tantrum._  
_With that, Harry makes his way into his room, trying not to think about how adorable the man in his living room is. He’s definitely not thinking about how good he looks with his usually tight and wet pants clinging to his thighs and how is shirt is almost see through and the way it sticks to his curves._  
_He grabs some clothes he thinks won’t be too big for Louis and takes a second before going back out to the boy in his living room._  
_“Here, these should be ok for tonight.” Harry says while passing the pyjama pants and large band tee to Louis and taking his phone back in the process. “You can just go get changed in the -” before he even finished his sentence Louis is undressing, nearly out of his trousers and is about to start unbuttoning his shirt._  
_Harry can’t tear his eyes away from Louis, not quite sure if he should continue looking or if it’s considered rude, but what if it’s rude to look away? What if that’d offend Louis? He continues looking just in case looking away would offend him. Definitely not for his own benefit. No. Definitely not._  
_Harry was left staring at Louis with his mouth agape when the boy looked up once he’d gotten changed._  
_“Catching flies there, Harold?” Louis muses at Harry as the latter begins to blush and divert his eyes._  
_“I didn't mean to, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I wasn’t looking, well I was, but not - not in a pervy way. I’m really sorry, i’m just gonna go get a blanket and then you can just go get settled in my room. I’m really sorry, shit.” All of what he said ends up flowing into one and Harry knows he didn’t make much sense. He rushed all of his words out, not wanting Louis to think he’d just agreed to temporarily move in with some kind of pervert._  
_“No, Harry. I was joking, I wasn’t accusing you of anything, honest.” Louis responds, taking a step closer to the taller boy and wrapping his dainty fingers around Harry’s wrist to try and get him to stay and not dash away from him._  
_As soon as the contact is made, Harry is staring at it. Staring at the way Louis fingers can’t quite grasp the entirety of his wrist, fingertips so nearly touching - but not quite. The skin under Louis fingers is burning and he hopes the boy can’t feel it as much as he can._  
_As quickly as the contact was made, it was gone, but Harry still couldn't get his eyes off of his wrist. He found relief in the fact you couldn’t see see how badly his skin burnt with Louis’ fingers placed over him._  
_“Uh, Harry?” Louis says, slight concern in his eyes and his voice, immediately making Harry tear his eyes away from his wrist and look at the boy in front of him._  
_“Yeah? Sorry, my mind slipped away for a second there I guess.”_  
_“I called your sister, um. She said it’s fine and that she’ll call you tomorrow.”_  
_“Oh, great. Thanks, mate.” Harry says, clapping his hands together, before dropping them by his sides and turning swiftly into his room to grab an extra blanket and then walking back out to the living area._  
_“There you go, make yourself at home in there, it’s all yours for as long as you need it, of course.” Harry says, pointing in the direction of his room._  
_“Oh, thank you so much. Really, this is so kind of you, Harry.” Louis says with soft eyes as he looks at the boy currently trying to make himself comfortable on the lumpy couch._  
_Louis knows he probably won’t get a reply from the other boy, seen as he’s gone quiet since Louis grabbed his wrist, he thinks he probably overstepped some kind of line._  
_“Um, goodnight, Harry.” Louis mumbles before turning the living room light off and trailing down the corridor to Harry’s room.  
__“Goodnight, Lou” Louis hears Harry mumble quietly, just before he reaches the bedroom door. The nickname immediately making his stomach do back flips and he finds himself growing fond of the awkward, lanky boy.___

**Author's Note:**

> my twitter - @healyswheelies


End file.
